Welcome to America, Land of Socialized Medicine

I know … I know. I’m still reeling from the fateful blow as well. You will have heard it, probably, or you will soon (or now): the House has voted 220-215 to pass the healthcare reform bill (HR-3962). It is done … the government has officially taken over healthcare in America. (Never mind the fact that it’s only been passed through the House of Representatives, which means it still has a short ways to go – it’s here.)

With this latest great lefty pinko anti-American communist blow, no longer will tens of millions of Americans be left without healthcare coverage. No longer will private insurance companies be allowed to refuse coverage for people based on such excuses as “preexisting conditions” – you know, like weight, or height, or skin color, or because they’d broken a leg when they were four years old. Now, instead, the gov’t will be free and happy to barge into your homes and force abortions upon teenagers (despite there being no coverage for elective abortions), send old people out into the street to die (despite the bill only mentioning end-of-life counseling, which applies more to advance directives (aka living wills) than anything else), and there will be death panels put in place to establish whether you deserve treatment or not (despite that being exactly what private insurance companies and HMOs are in the first place).

With this passing of socialized medicine, who knows where this slippery slope to Fascist Governmental America will stop? Next thing you know, they’ll be teaching children about allowing Blacks to marry homosexuals whilst having sex with goats! *GASP-HORROR-THUNDERCLAP-SCARYREDEYES*

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On a more serious note, I personally see two ways this could go down:

• Scenario A:
  The system is managed competently and efficiently, all works to plan (or close enough), and people discover the incredible amelioration that is the public option; in a decade or two, people decide to go all the way and adopt socialized healthcare for real, having seen how great the “public option” is.

  Or …

• Scenario B:
  The system is run by incompetent fools as much of the government seems to be, and with the added blockages and opposition constantly pushed forward by Republicans (who gain support in their anti-government option movement), the reform turns into a failure and the people see this as “proof” of how government-run healthcare is evil socialist frogcrap.

Time will tell. Thankfully, though, I see reason to be optimistic.